


Psycho

by olivemartini



Category: Scream (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, One Shot, hidden moment, just a cute thing because now I have feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-06
Updated: 2016-07-06
Packaged: 2018-07-21 21:11:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7404985
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/olivemartini/pseuds/olivemartini
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Noah and Audrey have a whole list of things they don't talk about, ever, and noah's death bed confessions were certainly at the top. Which is why its such a surprise when Audrey asks him exactly why he wouldn't tell a girl his favorite movie is Pyscho on the first date.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Psycho

Noah and Audrey have a whole list of things they don't talk about, and Noah's death bed confessions had quickly risen to number one on the list.  Neither of them want to remember that Noah had practically admitted his love for his possibly gay best friend, not when it was under such unfair circumstances.  They won't even make a reference to that entire night.  E the topic of his damn cat is off limits, because it always brings this ghost of a smile to Audrey's face,ollowed by a flash of guilt. 

Which is why its such a surprise when Audrey, sprawled out across his bed, tilts her head and asks, "Why couldn't you tell Riley your favorite movie is Pyscho?"

Which, wow, she just tackled his ever growing serial killer obsession, the death bed night, and his dead ex sort of girlfriend, and they were all pretty high on the list of things they would go to their grave pretending doesn't bother either of them.  Noah decides right then that the conversation needs to stop as soon as possible.  "Like I said, you don't normally say things like that to a girl on your first date."

"Why, though?"  Audrey, in all her infinite wisdom, often goes on tirades about the feminist power and stereotypes and how anything a man can do, she can sure as hell do better.  This includes, apparently, sticking up for the fact that girls can love horror movies just as much as boys.  "Like, I watch horror films with you all the time.   Before this whole Piper thing happened, Emma used to be a huge fan of SawRachel was making a zombie movie."

Rachel and Piper in one sentence, with no cringing and no sign of discussing feelings, meant that this is one of those rare nights where they're free to say whatever the hell they want to each other.  Noah doesn't like that.  "Yes, yes, there are plenty of girls that love horror movies, and I made assumptions and said the Terminator.  I get it."

"The Terminator, though, really Noah?  Like," She's laughing here, and a few minutes ago he would have loved to watch her laugh, but now his face is all red and he's thinking about Riley, the girl he somehow convinced himself he loved when it was infatuation.  "That's such a cliché guy movie, I know you were trying to impress her, but that just made you boring."

Noah doesn't like this.  Doesn't like this at all.  Everything they say to each other sounds weird now, like they're walking on thin ice and every word sends another crack across the surface, each syllable putting them one inch closer to plunging into the hypothermia inducing water.  She sounds like she's making fun of him, but Audrey wouldn't do that, not when she knows so many other people are already lined up to do so.  And if he defends himself, Noah knows things will get worse, his words will twist in the open air until they don't mean anything close to what he thought he was saying, and it'll be another crack in an already broken friendship.  But- "I don't know, Audrey, I guess I was just trying to seem normal for once, just once in my life, for one night, even if she sees what a freak I am the next day, alright?  that's why I said the terminator.  Not to impress her, not to act like a macho guy, but to not be a freak."

There's silence, and she's staring, and he just wants to turn on the mic and do an emergency podcast, because there he gets to turn his quirks into armor and no one faults him for it.  "Likingrror movies doesn't make you a freak.  Lots of people do it."

"Yeah?  And lots of people have had an obsession with serial killers, with the most disgusting percent of the population, since they were five?  Lots of people find themselves in a real life horror film and aren't a little turned away from their graphic novels and their forensics and slasher films?  Lots of people deal with their PTSD by making a fucking murder board and running a weekly podcast about death, right?"  He's not sure where this is coming from, except the for the fact that he's been really freaked out for a long time over something no one can explain, and none of the answers are easy to find.  And he may have spent a little too long being the creepy kid no one wants to talk to unless they're threatening to beat him up, so god damn it, if he wants to tell a girl his favorite movie is the terminator to avoid looking weird, he will, and no one, not even Audrey, is allowed to judge him for it. 

Audrey had gotten up now, and was standing behind him, one hand on his shoulder.  He wants to shrug out from underneath her hand, but he also wants to kiss her, which is a really confusing thing to think about while he's talking about something he told his dead ex-girlfriend.  Except that's not what they're talking about anymore, is it?  (He's getting that image in his head again, the one with he and Audrey on opposite sides of an ever growing chasm, one that is just barely small enough to jump across.)  "You aren't a freak."

"I know."  But he doesn't.

"Liking this stuff doesn't make you strange.  Or weird."

"Liar."

There's silence then, because both of them know he's right.  If this stuff didn't make him a social pariah, there would have been no reason for the two of them to meet in the first place.  "Normal is boring.  And you, Noah Foster, are the smartest, sweetest, most wonderful guy I've ever had the pleasure of meeting.  It's not your fault that people thinks its fine to memorize statistics from football games and then consider it their right to decide what else is cool or what isn't.  That's not your fault, it's just the way the world works."

He doesn't want to talk about this. Doesn't want to talk about how he's spent the first part of his high school career being thrown into lockers, and the second part, where he actually has friends, being the comic relief guy.  Doesn't want to explain to her that he knows how the world works, and the world is not kind to IT nerds with super high IQs who have a fascination with the morbid parts of life.  Doesn't want to say that he knows what a girl would do if she finds out that the thought of catching the killer was the only thing in his entire life that he actually saw as a challenge, and as a sick as it was, it was sort of exhilarating to be given a starring role in his very own horror movie.  Noah knows these are not things you admit.  "Still doesn't mean you say that to a girl on your first date."

"Yes, it does, Noah!"  She spun him around in the wheely chair, causing his knee to smack painfully on the leg of his desk.  "You say whatever the hell you want to this girl, as long as its the truth.  Because if she thinks anything about you is weird or strange or offputting, than maybe she doesn't deserve to be around you anyways.  She should find it a privilege that you would even look at her, Noah Foster, and you will hold yourself to that standard!  This," And here she waves a hand at the murder board behind her, then at the stacks of books on his nightstand, then at his podcast.  "is all a part of you, and it's all you have to offer.  It's you, and it is wonderful."  She finishes then, looking a little embarrassed, and takes a step back.  "I- I just see how amazing you, and I can't see how you don't.  You deserve a girl that will help you find that part of yourself."

"I guess."  He's to busy staring at her to think that this is the first time anyone has ever told him anything like that, that maybe, if he just listened to Audrey everything would be a whole lot better.  He doesn't want to think about the warm fuzzy feeling he got when she was done with her lecture, doesn't want to question why he would ever look for anyone else when a girl like that, who sees all of him and still loves him in spite of it, is standing right in front of him.  He does not say that if he were on a date with her, he would have rattled off fact after fact, and would not have hesitated to have told her that his favorite movie is Pyscho.

"And while Psycho is an excellent choice of movies,"  She had returned to his post on the bed again, and his hand was hovering over the play button on his recent podcast.  "Everyone knows Silence of the Lambs is undeniably better."

**Author's Note:**

> come find me on Instagram @alwaysscripturient


End file.
